Venturemediauk: Asgardia – The First Space Nation

For many years citizens of earth have looked to the sky and dreamt about the secrets space holds. The possibility for new life and new civilisations. Envision a large group of different creatives going and living in space, that is exactly what Asgardia yearns to create for peaceful individuals.

Asgardia is the first ever man-made formed space nation and was formed by Igor Ashurbeyli, an Azerbaijani-born Russian scientist, businessman, and philanthropist. Dr Ashurbeyli has also founded the Vienna based Aerospace International Research Center and currently stands as chairman for Unesco’s Science of Space committee. The name of this future colony derived from the ancient mythological city of Asgard, “city in the skies, the country of the Gods”. Dr Ashurbeyli built this space nation concept on three factors; philosophical, legal and scientific/technological.

The philosophical meaning of Asgardia is peace in space. This group of space lovers primary mission is to live in a peaceful environment, a place where Earth’s disputes and wars can not be a part of life. Asgardia demands to be a place where xenophobia does not have a meaning and people from all walks of life can live in unity.

The legal aspects behind this organisation stem from the many arguments and negotiations of who will own certain sectors of space. “A core legal principle is that Asgardia does not interfere in relations between states on Earth – and vice versa.” Only 20 countries on earth, out of 200, already have space presences and it sounds like a lot of these places are already attempting to play Monopoly within our solar system. On the official Asgardia site they have stated the utmost importance that space law should not become the law of the jungle and they would like to create a new judicial system.

Igor Ashurbeyli broke the scientific side down into three goals, the first goal is simply to ensure the peaceful use of space. The second goal is slightly complex, it includes the safety of Earth from certain space threats, for example, sun storms and flares, potentially dangerous asteroids and changes in the Earth’s magnetosphere that could destroy the protective layer of our planet. Lastly is to create a free and demilitarised scientific base for knowledge in space, not only for the countries with connections to space already but it includes the developing countries that can not access this immense type of technology. Asgardian’s believe this should all be free access coinciding with the equality of their nation.

Asgardia is now taking their first steps to becoming the first nation in space as they are planning to launch a satellite in September 2017 holding a large amount of data for the Asgardian race. The first 100,000 people to sign up to become part of the nation will have the opportunity to store 300 kilobytes of personal data onto the satellite that will stay up in orbit for the foreseeable future. Each new satellite that is launched will be updated with this information so their memories can live on in space, hopefully, forever.

After the first 100,000 people signed up, Ashurbeyli has stated he will offer the next 400,000 people 200 kilobytes of data and the following 1 million people can receive 100 kilobytes.

On the official Asgardia website, it states they are anticipating to have the launch of the first satellite, Asgardia-1, with all the data uploaded sent up by late 2017.

Dr Ashurbeyli declared “Your names and data will forever stay in the memory of the new space humanity as they will be reinstalled on every following Asgardia satellite, orbital satellite constellation, not only in the near space but also on the Moon and anywhere in the Universe wherever Asgardia will be”.

On the 18th June 2017 the Asgardian nation voted for the Declaration of Unity,  the Constitution of Asgardia, Asgardia’s flag, its coat of arms, and national anthem. Asgardia is hopeful that their next step will be to form their parliament in six months time. They also hope to become a nation recognised by the UN. 

Ashurbeyli believes there is a bright future in space for humanity and envisions it will help mankind a great deal. I mean who doesn’t want to live in space?

Photography via Asgardia.